The present invention relates to a new and improved method of, and apparatus for, processing substantially flat or superficial products, especially printed products.
In its more particular aspects, the present invention concerns a method for processing substantially flat or superficial products, especially folded printed products which arrive in an imbricated or shingled formation or array, each product bearing upon the next following or trailing product, and wherein overlapping or shingled products are separated from one another.
As noted previously, there is also provided an apparatus for processing substantially flat or superficial products, especially folded printed products, which is of the type comprising an infeed device for the infeed or delivery of the products in an imbricated or shingled formation or array, wherein each product bears or lies upon the next following or trailing product. There is also provided an arrangement for separating or singling the overlapping products.
In the case of imbricated or shingled product formations, in which each product lies or bears upon the next following or trailing product, the problem exists that the leading region or portion of each product is covered by the preceding or immediately leading product. The leading region of the products is therefore not freely accessible in order that it can be acted upon or manipulated. In European Published Patent Application No. 136,498 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 4,595,192, granted June 17, 1986, there are disclosed a method and apparatus by means of which printed products in an imbricated or shingled formation or array of the type described above can be re-imbricated or re-positioned such that in the outfed imbricated or shingled product formation each printed product bears upon the preceding or next leading printed product. The printed products of the arriving imbricated formation are separated or singled from one another by acceleration devices and are formed into a new imbricated formation.
In the new imbricated formation of printed products, the leading region of each printed product is freely accessible and can be engaged from above. What is disadvantageous in this arrangement is that the printed products, during acceleration thereof, can be uncontrollably moved out of the imbricated assembly or composite structure, in other words, can be undesirably singled. As a result, the product relationship between neighboring printed products becomes lost.
Additionally, upon arrival at the acceleration device, each printed product is suddenly or abruptly withdrawn from the following or trailing printed products and such motion also can cause entrainment of the following or trailing printed products and, in turn, undesired positional shifting thereof. Therefore, with such prior art equipment and processing procedure it is not possible to guarantee that in the newly formed imbricated formation the positional relationship between the printed products will still be the same. If that undesirable situation arises then the imbricated product formation or array is no longer under positive control for performing further operations or manipulations.